Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana

Connecting Point: Golgotha - An Empty, Empty Place

I often have conversations with people struggling with life’s complexities. Particularly this last year, people have brought loss of health to me. But over time, I think, lost relationships are the most baffling. Yet, in this, I’m often encouraged by the person’s resilience. A week, or sometimes much later, the person tells me that they’ve met with encouragement.

We all need encouragement, and I’m always relieved and grateful to God that things have improved. Pastors, I think, are generally in a position to experience deep changes in people. One thing about people, we are all hard-wired for close relationships.

My goal this week is to point you towards an empty place in history, one of the most unlikely places to find hope. Who would have thought that an empty burial tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea would be a place of life? Very few. But God has often used unconventional situations to display His majesty and sovereignty. Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, and was crucified for our sins.

Jesus’ followers were stunned by what occurred—Judas’ betrayal, the trial before Pilate, the streets of Gethsemane, and finally the place Golgotha, the execution site just outside of Jerusalem. The Gospel of Luke (23: 48-49) records those last moments, “When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.”

The emptiness had to be overwhelming for all those who had looked to Jesus. All must have seemed lost. What about all those teachings Jesus passionately shared with them? Were they to be forgotten? Imagine yourself as if you had given up every part of your life to follow Christ.

Would you have lost sight of His teaching? Would you have been intolerably numb?

Jesus spoke about His betrayal earlier, but they did not comprehend. Specifically, Christ had predicted to Peter that he would betray Him. Even earlier, “he then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed,” (Mark 8:31). Peter had sternly opposed this too, and Jesus corrected him.

In Mark 8:31 the Bible assures us of the Resurrection, and “after three days rise again.” The Gospels record Jesus laying the foundation for them to understand his Resurrection. We celebrate Easter for this reason—our hope rests in this real time event. In Christ, we grasp eternal life. The significance of life and love is found in Jesus.

 

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